


Wingo

by Blackpenny



Category: Blake et Mortimer | Blake and Mortimer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-06 08:37:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4215135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackpenny/pseuds/Blackpenny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Why did Jessie Wingo join the F.B.I.? How has she succeeded?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wingo

When Jessie Wingo was eight years old she caught a classmate, mean old Bobby Jamieson, pushing and teasing her little cousin Winnie, who was only in first grade. That the boy was head and shoulders taller than Jessie didn’t save him from her quick, hard fists and within five minutes he was on the sobbing and screaming for help as the schoolyard cheered Jessie on.

There had been consequences: stern words from Principal Carr about her unladylike, impulsive behavior, and detention. She had had to stay after school for a week cleaning erasers and doing errands for the school staff. Her parents had spoken gravely and at length about her temper and the need to respect the school hierarchy. So much for official discipline! Unofficially, Jessie was the hero of her class. Bobby had no real friends, only sycophants. Winnie’s classmates worshipped the “big girl” who had come to their little friend’s defense and tagged after her on the playground. Jessie took her punishment cheerfully, sometimes staying later than required just to help out. Most of the teachers privately agreed that Bobby was due for some payback and made a point of smiling at Jessie or even giving her a little treat when she came to collect erasers or empty trash baskets.

Bobby, whose face was swollen and bruised long after Jessie’s detention was over, lost all credibility. Only Jessie’s fulsome and public forgiveness (after he’d apologized to Winnie) allowed him to walk the schoolyard with his head up at all. Nobody attempted to lay a hand on Jessie, Winnie, or any member of the Wingo family after that.

“That Wingo girl will go far,” said Principal Carr as he watched Jessie lead a group of kids in a wild obstacle course over the playground. “She has a temper, but she has a big heart and she fights for the underdog.”

Principal Carr was a kindly man whose predictions were often wildly optimistic, but in Jessie’s case he actually fell short of the mark. For a Native American woman to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation was quite literally impossible at the time, but not only did Jessie join the Bureau, she thrived there.

Of course, Jessie had the great advantage of discovering her real passion at an early age. In fact, that revelation came while she was pounding Bobby Jamieson into the dirt that fine, fateful day. Contrary to what everyone supposed, Jessie hadn’t attacked Bobby impulsively at all. The sight of him tormenting tiny, sensitive Winnie had filled her with anger, true enough, but she had almost instantly converted that anger to a supercharged clarity of purpose that fueled her legs as she leapt upon the dirty fink and her hands as she taught Bobby a lesson he’d never forget. What Jessie discovered that day is that there’s nothing better than making a lousy, no-good rat of a person scream, and cry, and bleed, and grovel. Getting praised for it is good too, but beating the living shit out of bad guys is the ultimate thrill.  


This is one of the rare situations where Jessie’s sex and race are an advantage. She smiles and plays along with a lot of horseshit about her “emotions” and her “crazy Redskin” ways only because she gets away with near-murder when she needs to. Another agent who routinely injured suspects might be considered a loose cannon, but not Jessie. She once drew a knife on a fellow agent who tried putting his hand up her skirt, and nobody was even fazed. “Watch out for our Jessie! She’ll cut you!” It was a standing joke.

The thing is, she really would cut a man. Hell, she really has, and nobody cares. It’s as if a knife wound or a broken nose or a bullet just doesn’t mean as much coming from a woman, especially a pretty woman with an “exotic” background. The only time she’s noted any concern was when she threatened to pop out a counterfeiter’s eye during an interrogation. The coward had confessed, of course, all the while blubbering as hard as Bobby Jamieson had all those years ago.

Calloway had looked a bit grave about that one, but Jessie knew her man by then.

“How’s that for being the ‘bad cop,’ Agent Calloway? They always think you’re going to be the scary one.” She’d asked this with the bouncy good cheer of a happy high school girl.

John’s face had dropped with relief. “Is that what you were doing? Jesus, girl, you had me going.”

“Really? Gosh, sir, that’s quite the compliment. I learned the part from you!” 

“And here I was ready to snatch your hand away.”

“As if I’d ruin my manicure on that piece of work,” she’d returned, carelessly flipping her braids.

After that, John Calloway became her mentor and greatest supporter in the bureau. He’s go through fire for Jessie, and in return she always has his back.

Jessie wears her hair in two simple braids and makes a point of suggesting the look of buckskin in her civilian clothes. She mentions her half-Cheyenne heritage frequently, alluding to traditional torture methods found only in pulp fiction. In fact, the most dangerous thing Jessie’s father taught her was how to catch and clean fish, but nobody needs to know that. Most people rarely think about Native Americans, and when they do their heads are full of foolish or romantic ideas. 

Philip Mortimer is no exception. Jessie thinks the professor is a darling, not to mention brave and very learned, but he’s still a white man. He sees other people as he wants to see them, which is why he had reacted to her urge to shoot an unarmed man with a pat on the head. He just didn’t believe her. Would she have really shot Olrik from the deck? In the absence of witnesses, absolutely! She would also have flayed the son of a bitch slowly to get information. Unforunately the professor and his friend Captain Blake had taken charge of that joke of an interrogation. They’d actually untied the prisoner for meals – they’d given him food and drink – and tried to persuade him to talk. Ridiculous! 

People like Mortimer and Blake refuse to understand anything outside their own moral code, which is why they’d be appalled to know that Jessie feels an odd kinship with Olrik. She despises him, of course, but he’s special to her because he pays her the compliment of genuine hate and fear. She’d seen it in his eyes as she’d held her blade to his throat. Olrik sees beyond Jessie’s pretty face and shining braids. He knows exactly what Jessie is capable of and has the good sense to be scared. Twice they’ve met, and twice he’s tried to kill her. Jessie has a feeling there will be a third encounter. It may be many years in the future, but Olrik gets around and he’s surely reckless enough to cross her path again. She keeps her knife sharpened in anticipation.

**Author's Note:**

> I really disliked the character of Jessie Wingo when she was introduced in The Strange Encounter, and it only got worse in the Curse of the Thirty Denari. Wingo is an anachronistic Mary Sue and a racist cartoon of a character. Having a Native American parent does not make a person a knife-wielding torturer.
> 
> But what if a violent, authoritarian person used stereotypes to her advantage? Now that could work. Thanks to darkrogue for beta reading and catching my mistakes.


End file.
